FAO technical assistance to AFSP has organised a four-day curriculum review and training design workshop from 7-10 September 2015 in Dhulikhel.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations in Nepal is providing technical assistance (TA) to Agriculture and Food Security Project (AFSP) of the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD) and Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), Government of Nepal since 22 January 2014. 

AFSP is multi-sectoral project funded by Global Agriculture Food Security Project (GAFSP) and supervised by World Bank. AFSP has been implemented in 19 mid-hill and mountain districts of the Mid-western and Far-western Development Regions of Nepal. The project is designed to enhance the food and nutrition security of targeted communities. Farmer Field School (FFS) is the key approach adopted in this project for bringing interventions to grass-root level beneficiaries.

According to a press release issued by FAO, one of the key tasks of FAO-TA is to review and develop curriculum, manuals, guidelines and materials for FFS to impart knowledge and skills related to crop, livestock, nutrition and livelihoods. TA team has designed curriculums of Master Training of Trainers for facilitators of  FFS and has prepared guidelines, manuals and learning materials for conducting FFS. Based on those curriculums, two events of MTOT and 5 events of F-TOF have already been carried out.

Main objective of the workshop was to review and update the existing F-TOF curriculums for facilitators of FFS, adapt and modify such curriculum for providing TOF to agriculture technicians.

In the workshop, refresher training modules were also designed for junior technicians (JT) and junior technical assistance (JTA). Moreover, implementation procedure for seed production FFS was also stipulated during this workshop. Nutrition modules were duly incorporated in the TOF and FFS curriculums worked out during this workshop.

Welcoming the participants, Team Leader of FAO-TA Dr.Braja Kishore Prasad Shaha highlighted the rational and objectives of the workshop.

In his key note speech, Shyam Prasad Poudyal, the Project Director of AFSP, focused on the way forwards for improvement in ToF and FFS design and curricula.

The Training Specialist of AFSP, Dr.Ratna Kumar Jha coordinated the workshop and facilitated the working groups to come up with comprehensive outputs.

Three papers were presented in the closing session chaired by Dr.Rajendra Prasad Adhikari, Joint Secretary of MoAD.

Crop Director of Nepal Agriculture Research Council Dr.ShambhuKhatiwada and Deputy Director General of Department of Agriculture Mr. Beni Bahadur Basnet provided their critical comments, opinions and suggestions on the curriculums and modules presented during the closing sessions.

Twenty-two experts from the Ministry of Agricultural Development, Ministry of Health and Populations and Project Management Unit of AFSP participated in the workshop.